SCO announced today it will release its 4th quarter and year-end financial results in a conference call after the market closes on Tuesday, December 21. The call begins at 5 PM Eastern Time.

They chose a 5 PM time for the last conference call, too. Before that, it was typically at 11 AM. Maybe they'll explain how their stock goes up on no good news at all. They offer the media the opportunity to participate in the live call or alternatively they can access listen-only mode. I might call in.

From a payphone. Two states over.

Joke. Joke.

I notice Yahoo still has the November 18 story about Ballmer warning Asian governments about Linux suits highlighted on their SCO page. But I also noticed that the stock started going up earlier in November. I admit I find it fascinating. Anything that contradicts what logic would dictate is interesting, because you can't help but wonder, what is the missing piece? Hopefully, someone will ask them during the conference call.

Here's what Dion Cornett's most recent Open Source Wall Street says about the stock:

"For the 2nd week in a row, SCO Group (SCOX: Market perform) was the best-performing stock in our group, returning 23%, ahead of the Company reporting FY04 (Oct) results this month. Despite the run-up, we believe that the potential for upside surprises during the quarter is limited given the Company’s relatively stable core business and our continuing skepticism with respect to its SCOSource licensing program. Specifically, we expect Q4 revenue of $10.8M, down sequentially from $11.2M, and a loss of $0.18, better than the $0.36 loss reported last quarter, although earnings will likely be highly dependent upon the accounting treatment of legal expenses during the quarter. While we maintain our Market perform weighting given SCOX’s volatility and limited trading volume, we note that the stock, now at $4.75, trades well above our $3 price target, and suggest selling into any strength potentially attributable to fresh speculation and year-end positioning. Again, a meaningful legal victory for SCOX is at least a year away, in our opinion, while upcoming hearings such as IBM’s (IBM: not rated) request for Partial Summary Judgment, originally scheduled for this week, but now expected mid-to-late January, could gut its case in the interim."

As usual, please know that I have no idea what the stock market is about, although I have certainly been watching these past couple of weeks, so don't do anything on my account. As for a time frame for a "meaningful legal victory for SCOX", personally, I'm guessing that'll be more along the lines of when pigs fly.

Here's their press release.

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The SCO Group to Release Fourth Quarter and Year-End Financial Results and Host Conference Call After Close of Market on December 21

Friday December 10, 4:00 pm ET

LINDON, Utah, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO® Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOX -News) announced today it will release its financial results, for the fiscal fourth quarter and year, ended on October 31, 2004, after the close of the market, on Tuesday, December 21, 2004.

In conjunction with the release, the company will also host a conference call that same day at 5:00 p.m. (EST) or 3:00 p.m. (MST) to discuss the Company's results.

HOW: If you would like to participate in the live call you may dial
800-565-5442 or 913-981-5591; confirmation code: 818639.

You may also join the call in listen-only mode via Web cast. The
URL is listed at http://ir.sco.com/medialist.cfm.

ABOUT THE SCO GROUP:

The SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX - News) helps millions of customers in more than 82 countries to grow their businesses with UNIX business solutions. Headquartered in Lindon, Utah, SCO has a worldwide network of more than 11,000 resellers and 4,000 developers. SCO Global Services provides reliable localized support services to all partners and customers. For more information on SCO products and services visit http://www.sco.com.

SCO and the associated SCO logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The SCO Group, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of their respective owners.